2016 WR Josh Shelmire has committed to SMU

[SoCal_Pony]

Title 9 and money means no men's track. Sad because smu had an incredible track tradition.

I thought at one time during the '80's, we were both indoor & outdoor NCs in men's track. Can anyone confirm?

[ponyboy]

The Mustangs swept the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in 1983, and won the 1986 outdoor title.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/022104/dog_smu.shtml

[ftworthmustang]

''The decision to eliminate track was a difficult but necessary one,'' athletic director Jim Copeland said in a statement. If we are to compete at the highest level in our remaining sports, we must concentrate our resources... to those programs deemed most viable.''[/u][/b]

Sure glad we were able to compete at the highest level in our remaining sports!

[couch 'em]

It is exist to have men's track when we could spend the money on women's rifle or women's curling. It's only FAIR!

[gostangs]

God, i'll be real good the rest of my life if we can just have 1983 sports again at SMU.

[jpe747]

I realize there is a money problem with adding sports to our Athletic dept. Nonetheless, SMU needs to weigh what sports are the most beneficial to the overall SMU experience. I'm not suggesting dropping any sport but weighing each sport. If our objective is to bolster our football and basketball program the question should be asked, is Soccer or Golf more important than Men's Track? What about Tennis? What about Competitive Swimming? I would hate to lose any of these and especially Swimming because of SMU's history (and I use to be a Competitive Swim coach so I LOVE the sport). But where do we need to put our resources? If such a study determines we have the right mix of sports now then so be it. However, if it were up to me, I would add Men's Track and drop one of the above. (btw, I would keep Men's Swimming).

[SoCal_Pony]

I realize there is a money problem with adding sports to our Athletic dept. Nonetheless, SMU needs to weigh what sports are the most beneficial to the overall SMU experience. I'm not suggesting dropping any sport but weighing each sport. If our objective is to bolster our football and basketball program the question should be asked, is Soccer or Golf more important than Men's Track? What about Tennis? What about Competitive Swimming? I would hate to lose any of these and especially Swimming because of SMU's history (and I use to be a Competitive Swim coach so I LOVE the sport). But where do we need to put our resources? If such a study determines we have the right mix of sports now then so be it. However, if it were up to me, I would add Men's Track and drop one of the above. (btw, I would keep Men's Swimming).

Well, we did bulldoze our tennis courts a few years back...are you seriously proposing we do that again?

[jpe747]

No. I'm not for making any changes right now. However, I think it would benefit SMU football to have a Men's track team. Assuming football is a major sport at SMU, I think it would be prudent for the (SMU) powers that be to set down and plan how it could be added. And if it is important enough to replace another sport I say do it. If football is just another sport on campus then everything is just fine as it is. I am perfectly happy with the sports we have now. I just thought SMU was interested in doing what needed to be done for KING FOOTBALL. I'm interested in WINNING FOOTBALL GAMES.

[Nacho]

baseball

[gostangs]

Drop swimming and Tennis and add lacrosse and indoor/outdoor track.

Sell the tennis deal to HP so they have room to expand on their campus. take the money and build an IPF with a track - best in the country.

Do lacrosse since it matches up with our student profile - and the kids will go to a lacrosse game but would never go to a swim meet or a tennis match.

Save a bunch of money on a new nat that 95% of the SMU community will never walk into.

[Rayburn]

Shelmire is a good pickup. My nephew goes to LSA with him and I saw Shelmire play a couple of times last season. He caught everything thrown his way. He has a good GPA and, so I'm told, is a solid citizen.

YES!

[Puckhead48E]

I realize there is a money problem with adding sports to our Athletic dept. Nonetheless, SMU needs to weigh what sports are the most beneficial to the overall SMU experience. I'm not suggesting dropping any sport but weighing each sport. If our objective is to bolster our football and basketball program the question should be asked, is Soccer or Golf more important than Men's Track? What about Tennis? What about Competitive Swimming? I would hate to lose any of these and especially Swimming because of SMU's history (and I use to be a Competitive Swim coach so I LOVE the sport). But where do we need to put our resources? If such a study determines we have the right mix of sports now then so be it. However, if it were up to me, I would add Men's Track and drop one of the above. (btw, I would keep Men's Swimming).

Here's your problem. In the last 20+ years, the sports you list above are pretty much the only ones SMU has been competitive in. Problem with adding track is that you would have to add a women's sport. Softball should be relatively simple, but we don't have the facilities. The recruiting area overlaps with women's soccer, but with the move towards a year-round NCAA soccer schedule you would lose those dual sport athletes there.

I do find many of the responses now, after a commit with a track background comes in, to be funny. I suggested that our 2 "primary" mens sports (football primarily, but also basketball) would benefit from a track program several months ago, only to be booed off the board by the naysayers. We had a strong history in track, where we were a pipeline for Eastern European athletes to international success (similar in many areas to swimming) which brought acclaim to the school. We should be capable of supporting more than a few sports and we should aspire for recognition at multiple levels in these different arenas. It doesn't have to be a natural conflict...but the financial aspect must be addressed to ensure it doesn't create a situation where programs end up eating each others budgets.

Finally, not sure the answer to this so I will openly ponder here: what is the impact on our bid for a P5 conference if we lack several of the larger sports they participate in (aka baseball and track)?

[Morris Code 11]

As much as I love title IX, let's get back to Shelmire......


this guy's tape is pretty legit. Offers are going to come his way in the next year, and I would suspect some serious P5 looks. Sounds like he is content bc of our academics, which is key to holding a guy like this over TCU, OSU etc.

[Stallion]

247.com has given Shelmire a 3 star rating

[gostangs]

They need to tell him he is going to get P-5 traffic and we hope he will remember who offered him first, and let him know he can be a part of something special that he cant get elsewhere. Plus he wont get a scholarship to a better business school. Then hope Stanford doesn't call.